Vettel is against the "double points rule"

Despite Red Bull’s early season technical crisis, Sebastian Vettel is still opposed to the new ‘double points’ innovation.

It is widely believed that, having seen viewership numbers decline amid Vettel’s utter dominance late last season, Bernie Ecclestone pushed hard for the controversial double-points concept for the 2014 title finale. Unsurprisingly, Vettel – having won the last 9 races of 2013 on the trot – was not supportive. “This is nonsense, and punishes those who have worked hard for the rest of the season,” he said at the time.

But those comments were made before Red Bull and Renault struck serious technical trouble with the team’s new RB10 car. As the crisis entered a second test week in Bahrain, German Vettel was asked on Wednesday if he is now suddenly supportive of double points, given he might eventually need a boost to catch the runaway 2014 title leaders. “I think it’s February, yes the season starts in four weeks, but I think that’s not fair, that’s a bit too harsh,” Vettel answered. “No matter which way I’m not a big fan of the double points because I don’t understand the reason for it, but yeah, I hope that up to that point we have had lots of good races,” he added. “I don’t see any reason to panic — I know that everyone is working flat out to find a solution.”